


Draw Me Close

by TortiTabby



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Anxiety, Childhood Memories, Comfort, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Not Beta Read, Sickfic, Sonia Kaspbrak's A+ Parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26774800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TortiTabby/pseuds/TortiTabby
Summary: Eddie is down with a stomach bug, or at least hethinksthat's all it is. His mother's voice rings loud in his head. He struggles to juggle all of the issues she brings with it and navigate where exactly a certain Trashmouth fits in.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 8
Kudos: 84





	Draw Me Close

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't beta'd so go easy on me if you would!
> 
> Title from Bastille's song, "Warmth"

Eddie hadn’t felt well all day and had gone to bed early, the space reserved for Richie along with a ridiculous amount of Eddie’s own space, was empty when Eddie finally fitfully fell asleep. 

He woke up in the dead of the night with a sick sour feeling in his gut and panic alarms going off in his head. Richie was snoring peacefully beside him, his bare legs tangled in between Eddie’s. 

“Fuck. Fuck.” Eddie whispered to himself. He slid his legs out from Richie’s with growing urgency. As soon as his bare feet hit the cold wood floor he bolted to the bathroom and shut the door as quietly as possible and doubled over the toilet.

He grimaced as he retched, both from putting his face so closely to the toilet bowl, regardless of how clean he made sure it stayed, and from the sounds of Richie stirring awake in the next room.

Eddie pressed his clammy forehead against his shaking arms. Memories of his mother rushing him to the hospital whenever he had a fever raced through his mind. 

_ ‘What if something serious is wrong and I just assumed this was normal?’  _

_ ‘You can die from dehydration when you’re sick like this, Eddie-bear.’ _

_ ‘I just want to protect you.’  _

_ ‘Eddie-bear, I’m so worried. I just love you.’ _

It never mattered what the doctor’s ever said, he wasn’t ever actually sick and Sonia Kaspbrak couldn’t handle that. He’d spend the next week in his room on bed rest, the first two or three days miserable and sick, the last half bored and lonely.

Richie knocked on the door. 

At once, Eddie couldn’t handle Richie worrying and fussing over him. He resolved to pretend like everything was fine and make himself comfortable in the guest room until it passed. He didn’t want to pass it on to Richie, anyway.

“Eds? You okay in there?” 

“Go away!” Eddie snapped. It came out harsher than he intended and he could feel the apprehension and see the wounded puppy look through the door. 

“.....Alright.” 

Eddie could hear the hesitation before the floorboards creaked back towards their bed and the room grew silent again.

Eddie sagged with relief, and another emotion he didn’t dare name. 

He sat there long enough one of his feet fell asleep, and Richie’s soft snoring could be heard again, and gingerly got to his feet. He tip-toed to his side of the closet for clothes not soaked through with sweat and pulled out soft pajama pants. He glanced towards the bed before reaching over to Richie’s side and grabbing one of his old, tattered t-shirts that were soft from years of wear and smelled just like him. Eddie smiled softly down at it before tucking it under his arm and shuffling to the guest room across the hall.

Once he had the door shut softly behind him he collapsed on the bed and let out a shaky breath. He felt completely drained despite just waking up. 

He threw his dirty clothes on the ground and glared at them distastefully for being there. He’d have to pick them up once he was feeling better, he resolved. 

He awkwardly got dressed half laying down and shrugged the shirt on. He inhaled deeply and felt some of the tension ease from his bones, a Pavlovian response from drawing comfort from Richie since they were kids. 

He fell in and out of sleep, woken up frequently by either his stomach or fever. The blankets were too hot and cold all at once and each time he woke up he felt less and less rested than before. 

He woke up to the room lit by daylight and glared up at the ceiling with hot tears in his eyes. He was freezing and knew without checking he had to be feverish. The phantom fear of it being something more, something really wrong, plagued his mind. What would happen if he didn’t go to the hospital to spite the memory of his mother and there was something irredeemable wrong with him? What would happen to Richie if Eddie got seriously sick or even died just because he was reckless?

He rolled and pressed his face into his pillow and tried to steady his breathing. He screwed his eyes closed and as a last ditch effort attempted to fall back asleep and wake up with a clearer mind. 

He could hear a soft creak and felt the bed dip at his hip. A big familiar hand smoothed his hair back before resting on his forehead.

Richie brushed his hair back again before rubbing Eddie’s back soothingly.

Eddie rolled back onto Richie’s hand and glared up at him. 

“What are you doing in here?”

Richie freed his hand and held them up in surrender. “Sorry, I was just-”

“I don’t want you to get sick, Dumbass.”

Richie made a face down at Eddie before kissing his forehead gently and running his fingers back through his hair. 

"I'm not worried." He shrugged.

“Rich, we don’t even know what’s wrong with me, it could be so many things it- and I-I- don’t-”

“Woah, calm down there, Denbrough.”

Eddie swatted at him and Richie cackled. 

“First of all, I’m not afraid of catching whatever you have, Honey. If I was going to, I would anyway we sleep in the same bed.” He frowned and glanced around them. “Well, usually.”

Eddie rolled his eyes but stayed quiet.

“ _ Second _ of all, I wasn’t sure how helping you out would be received given your past, but I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing. There’s water and hot tea on the nightstand. It’s peppermint it should help your stomach.” 

Richie slid a hand up Eddie’s shirt and started to trace his fingers lightly over Eddie’s tense stomach.

“Uh, third… What do you mean you don’t know what’s wrong? Eds, you were bitching about your coworker being out half of the week with the stomach flu just last night, it’s been six hours since you threw up last and you clearly have a fever. I’m not a doctor but I’m willing to bet it’s, drumroll please, the stomach flu.” 

Eddie frowned up at him. Richie was staring back down at him. There was warmth in his cool blue eyes and Eddie could feel himself being soaked up in them. There were still some times where Richie looked at him too hard, saw too much. The love Richie looked at him with was both disorienting and intoxicating. Eddie loved him so much. 

“Do you want me in here?” Richie pressed after a stretch of silence. “If you’d rather be alone, I won’t be offended.” 

Eddie felt delirious from the fever. He grabbed Richie’s hand and pulled it to his chest. “Stay.” He whispered. 

Richie hummed and used his thumb to smooth out the skin on Eddie’s wrist absentmindedly. “I stripped the bedding and washed them and the clothes you changed out of. We should get a delivery with some sanitation wipes and chicken noodle soup in about an hour and a half so-”   
Eddie promptly burst into tears. Sobs wracked his chest and pulled at his aching muscles and sore abdomen. 

“Oh wow, hey. Hey, shh, shh, it’s alright, Sweetheart.” Richie rolled Eddie towards him until Eddie was curled to Richie’s chest, crying softly into his collar. 

“You’ve just got a bug. You’ll have a shitty day or two and then you’ll be back to my favorite little pouty risk analyst. Kicking ass and taking names.”

“I love you.” Eddie said garbled from Richie’s dampening shirt.

“I love you.” Richie said softly.

Eddie pulled back and shook his head. “No, Rich. I love you so much, and you, you love me back and you love me  _ right _ .” His voice cracked and he shook his head wildly. 

Richie pressed a long kiss in between Eddie’s eyes before hugging him tight and running his hand up and down his back until Eddie finally cried himself out. 

Richie’s phone vibrated between them and Richie took a quick glance before looking back up at Eddie. His eyes and cheeks were wet as well and Eddie hysterically wanted to climb inside of his chest and sob all over again.

“Groceries will be here soon.” 

Eddie ran a thumb under each of Richie’s eyes and smiled at him. His head was pounding from throwing up earlier and then shedding his weight in tears. He had to be dehydrated, he thought off handedly. 

“I’m a mess today and I know I’ll hear about this for the rest of our lives, but I  _ do _ love you.”

“Oh, Eddie, just when I think you know me.” Richie teased. “There is no way I can ever retell this without bursting into tears myself. This ones just for me.” 

He sat up and untangled himself from Eddie. 

“I’m going to go reheat your tea. After the groceries get here we can do a movie maybe? Or a bath?”

Eddie just smiled at him. “That sounds great, Rich.”

“Nice shirt, by the way.” Richie added with a wink as he left the room.

Eddie leaned back in the blankets, finally feeling warm. 


End file.
